Thickener/Fluid Interaction in Lubricating Greases
Abstract
To allow a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of oil retention by grease thickeners, techniques were developed to extract the thickener from greases for microstructural study. An approach was developed to allow thickener coating of glass microbeads for use as column-packing media for High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) evaluation of the thickener's molecular adsorption effects with base oils. Extensive testing of thickeners by HPLC under a variety of test conditions showed no resolvable changes in column retention times for different hydrocarbon types or base oil fractions. Considerable microstructural variation was detected between thickener types and thickeners of the same type from different manufacturers. This variation indicates that the effects of thickener microstructure on the containment of base oils by mechanical entrapment and capillary effects may have a greater influence on oil retention than the molecular adsorption mechanism.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA142276
Entities
People
- F. M. Newman
- J. G. Barbee
Organizations
- Southwest Research Institute